Study Session: July 14, 2008

These are the comments and issues I found interesting tonight. I encourage everyone to attend the meetings yourself. I have a recording of the meeting available. ~ Karen

The study session began at 7 pm with all council members and mayor present. After the flag salute and agenda approval, the police chief handed out some material to the council (but not to the audience). She highlighted some of Ruston's challenges such how often we often send people for training at the police academy. The academy is 5½ months long. There is salary reimbursement for the person that is coving for the officer in training, but Ruston must pay their officer’s salary while they are at the academy. The reimbursement is only available if the officer is sent for training within 6 months of hire. Most departments want lateral transfers, where an officer that has already been trained is hired. Lateral hires are a very competitive market and Ruston likely cannot compete.

The chief encouraged the council to just accept that Ruston will always be a “pass through” place for new officers. The goal is to be able to keep someone who is good for 2 to 5 years. To do that, we need to look at things like making our wages competitive, provide step increases (tied to performance evaluations), stop making Ruston officers buy their own weapons or pay for their own background checks and polygraphs, provide more for their uniforms and other benefits such as vacation or sick time accrual and pay a shift differential (where swing and graveyard get a higher pay).

Ruston has 24 hour coverage by our police with 4 full time and 5 paid reserve officers. The chief discussed some of the related scheduling/coverage challenges. Hedrick asked if Ruston was the only non-union agency in Pierce County. The chief said there are associations that help bargain for officers. Hunt wanted a number for what would be needed to make the department function properly. Albertson wanted to see what Tacoma would charge and felt the council had to consider outsourcing police coverage. After further discussion, the chief reiterated that she just wants Ruston to get into the game on salary. She noted that the new billing clerk makes only a $1 less than her officers. Huson made a disparaging comment about the new clerk, to the laughter of some fellow council members.

Huson, Albertson and Stebner also wanted to see numbers. Huson said as far as he is concerned, every public service is up for negotiation in this town as a way to stave off bankruptcy. He asked if the reserve officers could be hired to replace the 2 full time officers that are potentially leaving for new jobs. The chief noted that most of them have full time jobs that pay much better than Ruston’s police wages. Stebner asked if retired officers could be hired (they are generally not available because of restrictions with their pension).

The chief noted she had spoken to Tacoma’s chief and they can fill in if Ruston has any staff shortages before new hires are made (if needed). She noted she had not heard back yet on “the initial inquiry” (I think this was regarding Tacoma providing full time coverage).

The mayor then reviewed the maintenance department memo and his efforts with Steve and Steve. They are great guys who work hard to maintain the town. What you see is what they don’t do; curb and sidewalks that need painting, street lights that need repair, alleys that are unkept. He thinks the street signs are an embarrassment to the town. He recommended a new half time person. He spent several minutes outlining why the department needs more “supervision” than a part-time mayor can provide. An interesting Everding quote, “I think for decades when we were a mill town and the post mill town, the issues were small and a part time mayor worked…”

He felt the $4.25 million for the sale of the school lower lot should be spent on infrastructure improvements. Another quote, “You’d be hard pressed to put anything on a blog or newsletter that would show we spent any of that money on infrastructure.” Hunt felt The Commencement condos should be paying for half of the maintenance on the school building. Albertson felt residents want tangible, real things from the money paid for the school lots.

Stebner mentioned an AWC study that was in the council packets that may require the fire department to develop operating procedures that may cost money also. He wanted to see all the expenditure proposals at once. Huson noted that when the council hires a new planner (hopefully at the next meeting), the planning commission should meet monthly. There are many issues for them to address. A budget for this work also needs to be developed.

The mayor noted that he will ask all department heads to get their 2009 budget requests to him by August 1st, so the process could start early this year. The meeting adjourned about 8 pm.